A Special Guest, Part II

You may or may not recall that back in November I orchestrated a Skype call with John Mather, the 2006 Nobel laureate in physics and the sponsor for my internship last summer. Well, it turns out that after that connection, a friend of his in the chemistry department reached out to see if it would be possible to get him here in person-- and he agreed! Dr. Mather got in on Wednesday afternoon and left Friday morning, and spent pretty much all the time in between meeting with students and faculty.

We'd spent all semester preparing for his visit in senior seminar, from reading the reports on COBE (the work that won him the Nobel Prize) to catching up on the James Webb Space Telescope (for which he is the Project Scientist) and science policy. We were excited to finally be able to get answers to the questions we'd been coming up with for the past two months!

Dr. Mather chats with the senior class.

Right after class I had to hurry back to my dorm to get ready for a special event... dinner at President Hass's house! I was one of seven students from the college (Matthew was another) selected for a small dinner party with President Hass, Dr. Mather, Dean Moreland, and a few faculty members. All in all there were fewer than 30 people there, so it was very exciting to be invited! I hadn't been to the president's house since freshman year (when all incoming students are invited to a barbecue), which was back when Dr. Troutt was still in office. President Hass took us on a little tour, and I loved the way she'd redecorated! Everything went from being closed off and dark to light and airy.

Dinner was fancy and delicious-- catered and waited, of course. I met a couple of physics alumni, including one who flew in the air force with James Mattis for years and then rose to the top of the DoD. The best part? President Hass sent all of the students home with goodie bags of leftover dessert.

I worked with Professor Young to coordinate a physics students luncheon with Dr. Mather on Wednesday, which went quite well. We basically kicked all the faculty out so that the students could have a casual conversation, and we ended up chatting about everything from Pluto's demotion to the privatization of space flight.

I got to sit by Dr. Mather because I was technically supposed to be moderating (although there wasn't much need).

The whole time this was going on, I was also trying to keep up with the schedules for some scholarship candidates the physics department had invited to interview. Since I work for the department, I was largely responsible for scheduling their activities and coordinating most aspects of their visits so it was a lot to keep track of! But I am so glad that they were able to meet and talk with Dr. Mather-- how many colleges introduce their prospective students to a Nobel laureate? But I digress.

One of the things I love about Dr. Mather is how down-to-earth he is. He got his B.A. from Swarthmore College with highest honors, earned a perfect score on the Physics GRE (for reference, getting about 60% is a very respectable score for most people), graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a Ph.D. in physics and a 4.0 GPA. His postdoctoral project (which he started at age 28) confirmed the Big Bang Theory-- up until then purely hypothetical-- and completely revolutionized the field of cosmology. Stephen Hawking called it the most important discovery of the twentieth century. After receiving his Nobel Prize, he now leads a team of scientists working to develop what is in many respects the most ambitious telescope ever: the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be able to see much more than even the Hubble.

However, if you ask him for his story, here's what he'll tell you: I went to a small liberal arts college. When I graduated I planned on going to Princeton but some of my friends who were there told me not to go because it wasn't open to women at the time and they just hated it. So instead I asked the people I was doing research with at Berkeley if I could stick around and they said "sure!" Well, my thesis project completely failed, so when I was looking for a postdoc I thought I'd try it again, only in space. I didn't think our proposal would be accepted, but it was and my initial reaction was "oh boy, now we actually have to build this thing." I was so nervous it wouldn't work. But it did! So after all the dust settled from that, I didn't know what to do with my life so I took on a position at the University of Maryland. But shortly after that, NASA gave me a call to tell me about this telescope they wanted to build and offered me a job, and I thought "This is where I want to be." So I've been doing that ever since!

It also doesn't hurt that he has a wonderfully dry sense of humor.

Although Dr. Mather had many more appointments over the course of the day (meeting with faculty, trying out the virtual reality the Dr. Sanders is developing, speaking in different classes), I didn't see him again until that evening, when it was time for his main lecture. This is the one that we'd actually been billing, and it was held in the newly renovated concert hall across the street. Only here's the kicker: I got to give the introduction. I wasn't asked until Monday night, so I didn't have a ton of time to prepare (especially with everything else going on) but I couldn't refuse such a cool opportunity! So after Professor Young shared a little bit about the lecture series and the endowment that allowed for his visit, I got to stand up and tell over 500 people about Dr. Mather and how awesome he is. And then it was time for his talk! Since it was for a general audience, he didn't share that much I didn't already know, but it was full of amusing little tidbits.

Professor Young snapped a quick picture of the audience as people were coming in.

 There was a little reception afterwards, where I got him to sign my copy of the book he wrote about COBE. Then it was time for goodbyes and returning to real life.

By the way, you may notice that there aren't any picture of me in this post. They do exist, I promise! I just don't have them yet, but I'll upload them once I do.